EA Sports MMA needs more attention to detail

Here’s a guest review from Brian “Boomin’ ” Edelson one of a readers and an MMA fan. He also has a podcast on a site called TVEPN

By Brian “Boomin’ ” Edelson
Guest reviewer

As a huge MMA fan and video gamer, I had to check out what EA Sports had in mind for putting together EA Sports MMA. This is the second MMA video game in the past year (The first was UFC Undisputed 2010.) and I could hardly wait.

However, I had some reservations from the start. THQ holds the license for UFC games, which meant that that organization’s superstars wouldn’t appear in it. So the developer, EA Tiburon, turned to Strikeforce fighters to fill out its roster. This meant that the game would be without superstars such as Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Cain Velasquez and others. It’s reminiscent of EA’s licensing stranglehold with the NFL. By not having these fighters, EA Sports MMA’s quality isn’t what it could have been (but there are ways to work around this, as I will touch on later).

Being a UFC Undisputed gamer, I’ve been very impressed with its overall presentation and structure of THQ’s game. For MMA to compete with it, it has to have some knockout elements. It certainly has the standards: weight class, ring options, skill levels, etc. These are mandatory for any fighting game, but let’s go into detail of what makes this one different. Here’s how it falls out:

Round One (Visuals): The character models aren’t as finely tuned as UFC. Missing is a lot of clarity in the facial areas as well as muscle tone. At times, the flesh tone will be completely without detail, looking quite ghostly” and plain. Blood does not appear as much as in UFC Undisputed. When it comes out, it does so in small portions, even if the opponent is punching him constantly.

Round Two (Gameplay) Gameplay functions are decent. You can change configurations from Strikeforce to Classic, which is related to UFC’s configuration (in case you don’t want much difference from one game to another). The button elements allow for better ground game. You can have different variations depending on what fighter you have. There’s an “X-ray vision” when establishing a hold that might be devastating to the opponent. But when it comes down to it, the game plays similarly to UFC.

Round Three (Career mode): Players can develop their own fighter from the ground up and travel to different parts of the world, learning new styles. That’s definitely a plus.

Round Four (online play): A huge downside is the inability to see what your opponent has chosen for a fighter. Going to the match, you have no clue whether your opponent is playing fair or using a created guy with ridiculous attributes. Horrible structure. As I mentioned before, there are popular fighters missing from the game, but the “Fighter Share” feature makes up for that. In this mode, you can create competitors from scratch and allow them to be played and downloaded by others. Many of the missing fighters are already available for free to download. You can use you them in all modes; they play like the default fighter that was included in the game.

In all reality, EA Sports should have called this MMA title Strikeforce MMA since the default fighters are almost solely from that organization (and maybe a few outside the U.S.) This patchwork takes away from the monolithic identity needed for the sport. The game overall isn’t bad but there needs to be more attention to detail on body graphics. Meanwhile, the online match issue should have been caught during the beta testing. Because of this and the licensing issue, EA Sports MMA may be down for the count.

Gieson Cacho

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Was this article written by a 12 year old? Not only is the grammar horrible. It shows an incredible lack of knowledge of both video games and MMA. Crucial hold? You mean a submission attempt? I could list all the stupid comments in this article, but that would take longer than it took to write it in the first place.

I think “Boomin'” needs to stick to podcasting. Also, is anyone else almost positive that he gave himself that nickname?

dude

dude there is ton of blood in this game. it gets all over the mat the fighters, the shorts. its smeared everywear and you can see the blood sreaming down fighters faces. swear stains the mat too. I think the graphics are better just because not every fighter has the same body type like in ufc2010 and it is more fluid animations. You have to fight how they fight in real life. In ufc you could take kimbo and outwrestle and sub lesnar. You cant do shit like that in this game.

DianaM

@AndyB…Stop taking the Haterade.

Superior review Brian. Keep up the good work.

matchew

AndyB

I think you should check your own grammar before questioning that of others (I am refering to your use of a full stop on line two of your reply with a subordinate clause). Get off your high horse you muppet; the article sums up all the problems I found with the game.

Peace out.

matchew

The irony is that you use incorrect grammar in the statement where you are questioning the grammar of the article.

mIgHty

EA sports has always done a descent job with video games. From what the review states it looks like some cool features and fighters. Although the UFC is more well known than strikeforce I think the game will offer something for the gamer that is a MMA fan over a casual viewer. Nice review though.

Phil Baroni

EA MMA is the best eva! Brian “Boomin” Edelson is just a typical UFC tard that is too unspohisticated to enjoy an MMA game without penis-chested fighters on the roster.

Phil Baroni

My spelling is the worst eva!

“unsophisticated”

The Saint

I agree with ONE thing on this so-called review, and that is the online functionality that doesn’t allow you to see the fighter your opponent chose, which means there’s no way to agree beforehand with your opponent on which fighters you’ll be playing as, which means you’re forced to always pick Fedor (or whoever the top rated fighter is in the weight class) or else risk picking a fighter who’s significantly underpowered.

With that exception, EA MMA is head and shoulders above UFC Undisputed. Undisputed is more complex but in all the wrong ways. The clinch game is atrocious and the fighting is VERY formulaic. Winning in Undisputed comes down to landing an X amount of strikes before delivering the KO or submission. The fighting in EA MMA is infinitely more organic. Spamming is virtually non-existent as there is a counter to every move. Everything is based on timing and stamina, which is governed by a dynamic meter. The standup in EA MMA is lightyears ahead of Undisputed, not because of the analog control, but because you have direct control over the type of punches/kicks you want to throw, while in Undisputed you are limited to the predetermined combo chain your fighter is assigned with no way of altering it. The ground game in EA MMA is just as strategic if not more so, and you never have to wonder if you’re “doing it right.” After playing hundreds of matches in Undisputed 2010, half the time I still don’t know why I ended up suceeding or not succeeding in what I was trying to attempt. Also, being able to fight in a ring and under different rules provide freshness and variety. UFC Undisputed is a great game, but EA MMA has surpassed it.

Joseph

What a terrible review. This game has received great reviews from all the major video game magazine’s and all customer feedback has been more than positive. You are mad that they have Strikeforce fighters? You can go to fighter Share and download Brock Lesnar, Cain, Chuck, and everyone else you want on this game and they looks amazing, even says their names and everything.

Even I think EA MMA is better than UFC Undisputed, but a better product doesn’t always sell better. Fortunately for the UFC, our fans are considerably less intelligent than the average person and we try to appeal to the Wal-Mart and McDonald’s type crowd.

Very well said. EA needs to really adjust to the fact that they don’t have the advantage of a license of a professional league to help with sales, their game’s success relies on how good the game is, not because of a certain MMA fighter they have.

DianaM

Just finished listening to the podcast show….WOW UNCENSORED shows rock! Insights are great…less UMMS from Brian Boomin and there in bizzness.

Josh

@AndyB

Haha, Are you a EA Fanboy? Everything he said in this was right, Yeah the Grammar wasn’t the BEST but he was spot on with most of the stuff.

I agree with the graphics, They look like a Playstation 2 game when you’re acctually fighting.

The gameplay isn’t smooth, It feels like when you punch someone everything freezes until your hands are back and then it all continues about 1 second after you ha the punch etc.

The guys can pretty much “Slide” across the “Octagon” In like 2 steps, LOL yeah ok…

The blood in this is absalutely terrible, I’ve seen SO many fights where there was more blood than what this games showing.

The commentator has a lot of bugs in it, Where he’s screaming about the croud going wild yet they’re silent.

It only has like 4 fighters worth playing as Unless your a strikeforce fan.

THe game sold as many as it did “Poorly” Because it’s no where near in the league of UFC Undisputed, And UFC UNDISPUTED 2011 is going to be an absalute Ownage of a game.

By the way, This is the response EA gave UFCS President Dana White when he went to them to create UFC U9 – “”‘You’re not a real sport. We wouldn’t touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this.'”””

Then when THQ’s Undisputed 9 sold so well, EA dogged themselves and made a mixed martial arts game, After saying it’s not even a real sport.

Shame on you EA, you bunch of girls, Terrible game.

Jason

@Joseph

How has the reviews all been good? The “CRITICS” score has been no higher than an 8, And the USER scores all over the net is averaging a 6.5 -7.5.

In any case, That’s a poor score.

The Saint

@Josh: Actually you’re the THQ fanboy who’s probably in the top 100 leaderboards courtesy of the spam fest that Undisputed is known for. You’re completely out of your mind or plain blind to say that EA MMA “looks like a PS2 game.” If you want any credibility you ought to stay away from fanboy linggo that gives your ignorance away. The “sliding” footwork in EA MMA is a cosmetic issue but functionality-wise, it works just fine. The animation in THQ is cartoony with the fighters moving in fast forward, which is why an accelarted clock is used to mask this. The pacing in EA MMA is uber-realistic, the game flows just like a real fight. Undisputed is spamtastic at best. The standup is a complete joke with fighters getting “trapped” in their opponent’s combos. You can’t even create your own combos. You feel like throwing a jab, cross, left hook, right uppercut combo? Well tough luck if your fighter’s combo chain consists of a right hook, right hook, left hook and right hook. You’re STUCK with that combo. Blind fanboyism won’t win you any arguments. Facts still rule the day.

Dana White

The folks that made the Sims games for EA actually told me it wasn’t a sport. I wasn’t smart enough to approach the EA division that actually made sports games. Regardless, I’m going to continue telling my retarded fans that it was EA’s sports division that claimed it wasn’t a sport. They’re so stupid they won’t even question what I say.

JasonD

This reminds me of the the 2K Sports All pro football and Madden. Once you lose the rights to have the big names and what really makes people want to buy the game, its over. EA got a taste of there own medicine.

About this i can say that Little thieves are hanged, but great ones escape.

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